BOOM!!

Well maybe not BOOM, but if our firewall crash last month could have made a sound, it definitely would have been as resounding BOOM.  It’s a gut wrenching feeling as a IT service provider when one of your primary datacenter firewalls crashes without warning.  Fortunately, thanks to our monitoring systems and excellent tech team, we minimized the impact of the failed device and put a temporary solution in place till we get the right replacement.

Since the crash last week we’ve been working our butts off trying to pick the best replacement for our core firewall infrastructure at the Toggle Datacenter.  We met with numerous trusted IT professionals and companies around town and found ourselves smack dab in the middle of a Juniper vs. Cisco debate. 

Cisco’s better…No, Juniper is better…No, Cisco because…  You get the idea.  Everyone has an opinion and most seem to biased and backed by not knowing all the facts.  As typical in most technology debates, there is more emotion than fact.  Fortunately one of our service delivery partners had extensive experience with both Cisco and Juniper and really had no preference.  For the first time we were able to assess each company’s products and support objectively.

I won’t bore you with the details, but after a tremendous amount of research and discussion we have chosen to go with 2 redundant Juniper SSG 350M firewalls.  That’s not to say that Cisco is bad and Juniper is good.  The Juniper SSG 300/500 series out-classed the Cisco’s ASA 5500 series for us on performance and price making Juniper the obvious choice.   Plus their support and replacement plans are first class…even though Cisco diehards would have you think otherwise.  It’s like comparing BMW to Merc…never mind, one topic at a time.

I think the real decision maker for us was learning that most of the world’s service providers choose Juniper over Cisco for security and routing solutions.  Heck, even our datacenter providers infrastructure is powered by Juniper, and they are the largest in the world!

In the end, both are excellent solutions and neither can be faulted.  You might just end up making your decision by flipping a coin or going with whichever looks sexier.  I can’t wait to show off the stylish Junipers to the next person I take on a datacenter tour.  I guess emotion did play a part after all

Drop me a line if you every want to see them in action…or to get the full scoop on why we chose Juniper.